Spell hit
Spell hit is a combat attribute that increases a caster's chance to hit with spells. Spell hit is primarily obtained from talents or gear that has spell hit rating. The more gear with spell hit rating a caster has the lower the chance the casters spells will miss (i.e. an enemy resist the spells). This chance to hit is capped at 99%, therefore there is always at least a 1% chance to miss with spells (i.e. a 1% chance the enemy will resist spells). Base chance to hit is based only on level difference between the caster and the target. A spell that fails to hit is shown as a resist, though this is different than the spell resistance mechanic. Spell hit has no effect on healing spells, as they will always hit. Spell hit rating is part of the combat rating system that was introduced with Patch 2.0 and the Burning Crusade expansion. Each point of spell hit rating increases chance to hit with spells by a percentage. The exact percentage per point is based on two parameters: *The player's level: When the player's level increases, the points of +spell hit rating needed to achieve +1% chance to hit with spells increases as well. Viz, the percentage contribution by each +spell hit rating point is reduced when the player's level is increased. *The target-mob's level: The greater the target-mob's level the more +spell hit rating is need to achieve +1% chance to hit with spells against that mob. Again the percentage contribution by each +spell hit rating point is reduced when the target-mob's level is increased. Other than spell hit rating, a caster can increase chance to hit with spells with talents, depending on class. How spell hit chance is calculated The spell hit mechanic has been confirmed by Blizzard CM Eyonix. Base chance to hit is based on level difference between caster and target, starting at 96% for even levels, and going up or down from there, capping at a maximum 99%. Furthermore, the chance to hit is different for mobs (PvE) and player (PvP) targets. For example, a level 70 caster attacking a level 73 mob will have a 83% chance to hit with spells in PvE. Furthermore, a level 70 caster attacking a level 74 or higher mob decreases by an additional 11% per level in PvE, and by 7% in PvP. Players many levels below their target will always have at least a 1% chance of landing a spell. This means you will have the minimum chance of hit against PvE targets at least 11 levels higher than you, and PvP targets at least 16 levels higher. For casters, 1% of additional spell hit amounts to 1% additional damage statistically, up to the cap based on level of the mob being attacked. Increasing spell hit Chance to hit can be increased by talents or gear with spell hit rating up to a cap of 99%. Spell hit rating is a stat found on gear that increases spell hit chance by a certain percent per point, based on level. At level 70, 12.6 spell hit rating is equivalent to 1% spell hit. Because the highest level mob currently present is level 73 (all BC raid bosses, for instance), a level 70 caster has an effective spell hit rating cap of 202, assuming no other spell hit sources. Aside from gear with spell hit rating, chance to hit can also be increased through some buffs and spells. Draenei casters give an additional 1% spell hit to their group with Inspiring Presence. The following table lists some talents that also increase a caster's chance to hit with spells. Taking these effects into consideration lowers the effective spell hit rating cap. Talents and gear combined, chance to hit with spells cannot exceed 99%. Casters should keep this cap in mind when considering their gear. In PvP at level 70, anything more than +3% chance to hit is excessive. For PvE raiding, bosses are considered to be 3 levels higher than the caster, meaning +16% is the most that will be effective. Note that some classes (for example Paladins and Rogues) can spec to gain extra chance to have spells miss them. Also, some abilities (e.g. - Cloak of Shadows) gives the player using the ability extra chance to have spells miss as well. Extra spell hit does in fact mitigate this extra chance to miss, but is otherwise useless. Effect of resistance Spell resistance has a separate effect that is considered in addition to spell hit chance, and is based on a resistance stat for a specific school. In general a certain amount of resistance will mitigate a certain percentage of damage from a magic school. For binary spells that do not partially resist, the resistance mitigation is combined with the spell hit chance to give an overall percentage for the spell to land or be resisted. The chance to hit is multiplied by the mitigation factor from the resistance to give an overall chance to hit. For the following formula, B is base chance to hit with spells, H is increased chance to hit from gear and talents, and R is the mitigation factor given from resistance. (B + H) * R For example, a caster with 6% increased chance to hit, attacking a mob 3 levels higher (83% base chance) that has enough resistance to mitigate 50% of spell damage, the overall chance to hit with a binary spell is 44.5% (83% + 6%) * 50% = 44.5% For non-binary spells, resistance is computed as a second calculation after the spell hit chance is rolled. After a spell hit is determined, a partial resist calculation based on resistance is done, which can also result in a full resist. These two resists appear identically in the combat log, and there is no known way to distinguish a spell miss from a full resist. The effect of Spell Hit chance on Spell Critical Hit chance Unlike the melee combat system, spell crit makes absolutely no difference to hit chance. All spells, regardless of whether they are treated as binary or not, roll hit and crit separately. Conceptually, the game rolls for your hit chance first, and if the spell hits you have a separate roll for whether it crits. Overall chance to crit over all spells cast is thus affected by hit rate. To calculate overall crit rate, multiplying the two chances together: crit rate over all spells = crit * hit For example, a caster with no spell hit rating gear or talents, against a mob 3 levels higher (83% hit chance), and 30% crit rating from gear and talents: crit rate over all spells = 30% * 83% = 24.9% In addition, direct damage spells suffer from partial resistance, but again, that has no effect on whether a spell hits or not. A fully resisted spell due to spell school resistance is indistinguishable from a spell which didn't hit, which contributes to some of the confusion on the matter. Spell hit rating caps for level 70 A common question among casters is how much spell hit rating is needed to hit the 99% chance to hit cap. As stated earlier, this depends on the level of the targets one expects to encounter, and any talents that add chance to hit with spells. The following table summarizes how much spell hit rating is needed for a certain level, after all talents and buffs are taken into consideration. To use the table, first add up how much spell hit you already have (don't forget the possibility of a Draenei or a shaman with Totem of Wrath in your group), then look up that row to find the hit rating cap for targets level 70 up to 73. End-game raiding casters generally use the level 73 column, as the effective level of bosses is 73. As a rule of thumb, a level 70 player against a level 73 boss needs +12.615*k spell hit rating to achieve +k% chance to hit with spells. That means that on 70-vs-73 fights each point of +spell hit rating contributes about +0.08% chance to hit with spells. Also bear in mind that if you have a draenei Priest, Mage or Shaman in your group their Inspiring Presence will get you one scale lower from where you where in the above table thus enabling you to swap 12.615 hit rating points from your gear for more useful stats. The inspiring aura buff does not stack of course. The players with the lowest need for +spell hit rating seem to be the draenei elemental shamans. With maxed out Elemental Precision, Nature's Guidance and Totem of Wrath combined with the racial ability of +1% chance to hit with spells (= +12.615 hit rating against a lvl73 boss) these shamans need only 38 spell hit rating points by their gear/pots/enchants to achieve 99% chance to hit with spells against level 73 bosses. The above fact is very interesting because it allows a unique synergy among draenei elemental shamans. Exactly because the totem of wrath stacks, a pair of these shamans put in the same party enable each other to achieve the desired 99% chance to hit with spells with 0 +spell hit rating from gear/pots/enchants — the second totem of wrath will provide the needed 38 spell hit rating points for both of them. See also *Resistance *Spell hit gear References Category:Formulas and game mechanics Category:Attributes